Rodgers' methods reminds me of those celebrity diets - a diet that has some elements of good in it (i.e. drink lots of water, eat less) but also has a bunch of
woo. So not full crazy, like aura healing, but maybe the dieter has to eat elements of animal poop and weird herbs, because that's what they did back in the year 1100. Rodgers created this diet and Suárez was his most famous and successful customer - although Rodgers will never admit that Suárez's success was perhaps in spite of his diet, not because of it.
Suárez has, however, convinced Rodgers that the diet somewhat-worked - while the diet was not successful for everyone, there were clearly elements that were good. It also vindicated Rodgers as a doctor - his methods to create the diet also had elements of correctness to them. Therefore Rodgers has gone back into research mode - tinkering, innovating, desperatelly seeking a better way. This is now his problem - he
has to keep innovating. To basically simplify his ways and play more established tactics would be a kick to the balls as it proves his methods behind his diet (tactics) were wrong. He has an ego and I have no doubt he takes that thought very personally.
I don't think it's any surprise his tactics he's tried over the last few years have an element of things that are in vogue today, like three-man defences, possession-based football, centre-backs bring the ball out, defensive midfielders as centre-backs, inverted wingers, and players playing out of position. A lot like Pep Guardiola, with the key difference being, of course, that Pep manages a much superior side. What Rodgers has done is cherry-picked all of these elements and convinced himself that he can mush it into a coherent, successful tactic. But all he's done is created a crappy version of total football with players who simply aren't good enough for this tactic (heck, our team isn't, and van Gaal has had to splunk hundreds of millions to get just halfway there). And a lot of his failures are down to what he's not considered, like well-drilled defences.